OSCE Chairperson-in-Office/First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic, in response to the continuation of heavy fighting around Debaltsevo and deterioration of the humanitarian situation, urged all the parties to the conflict to refrain from violence.

Dacic, as Chairpeson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), also urged both parties in the conflict to cease immediately all military operations.
The Minister expressed his sadness over the loss of human lives, and on humanitarian grounds called on the conflicting sides in and around the Debaltsevo area to establish a local three-day truce, to be in effect immediately and supported by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.
He estimated the truce would enable an urgent evacuation of the civilian population from the conflict zone.
Minister Dacic asked Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in the Trilateral Contact Group, to pursue this proposal further within this body.
The truce should also allow for immediate continuation of consultations aimed at ensuring a sustainable cease-fire and full implementation of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, Dacic stressed, adding that the two documents remained the basis for a peaceful settlement of the crisis.
The statement of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) also quoted Dacic as saying that the Trilateral Contact Group had expressed its readiness to engage in such consultations.